Im looking to add three near-all-powerful maguffins to my game. They should be basically game breaking if wielded properly, but they can kill you if you use them wrong/too much. They're meant to be endgame material. The final boss will have one/two, the party will have the third. Any ideas?
Are you familiar with the tv show The Magicians? Attempting to exceed your magical potential with a powerful spell would essentially burn you from the inside and turn you into a Niffin, a being of pure magical energy.
For 5e, a game-breaking option would be a spellcasting focus that allows the player to ignore concentration for spells. Every round that they maintain concentration on 2 or more spells, have them roll a concentration check against DC 13 +2 per spell (or whatever is appropriate). On 3 failures, they turn into a Nothic. (Resets on a Long Rest)
Maybe a time bending one? Ex: Wielder can cast the time stop spell x number of times, slow 3x times, and haste 3x times. Once per day, the wielder can force one creature to reroll an attack roll, saving throw, or ability that happened less then one round before.
Or a space bending one? Ex: Wielder can cast the gate spell x number of times, banishment 2x times, and dimension door 2x times. Once per day, the wielder can teleport another creature to any location that they can see. The target takes y force damage if its teleported into an object.
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Well, the entire point of a Maguffin is that the thing itself is irrelevant. It’s only value lies in the fact that everyone wants it.
In Pulp Fiction for example, all we ever new of the thing was that a golden glow would shine on the face of whoever opened that briefcase and they got a funny expression. That was enough to imply the items desirability supposed value.
In Star Wars it was the blueprints to the Deathstar, but the story’s main hero’s, as well as we the audience, never actually need to see it at all. They got it to point Z where they gave it to someone else who then told them the tiny little piece of information they actually need to go be the heroes so we could enjoy watching it.
So, whatever you decide them to be never need do anything at all in the heroes’ hands, and they don’t actually even need to really know what it is or why it works. They just need to know two things:
It is important.
To whom are they supposed to deliver the package.
They may (or may not) learn other stuff about the object too, but those things don’t even need to really be true.
In truth, anything powerful enough to qualify as a Maguffin is probably best out of the party’s possession, rather than in their possession with the only exception being the convenience of having that ready to use as the reason why random evildoers will be popping in in the party to steal the thing whenever you need that excuse. But you don’t need them to be in possession of the thing for that to be your excuse, simply having some useful piece of information about the item can be enough. Like maybe they have the most recent data on the item’s last known location; knowledge of the individual or location meant to be the object’s final intended destination; or the object’s command word, or maybe even just a piece of it.
It's about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way through. They spent the first half of the campaign returning one of the gems to an elf king, not knowing what it was and being told to never touch it. The BBEG is about to get ahold of the second one and they will likely need to find the third in order to stand a chance against him. They will probably be around 10-12th level by the time they hit endgame.
I like the idea of not needing concentration, was also considering making spells cast with the gem force an auto-fail on saving throws.
As for what spells to give each gem, I was considering that each one will give the wielder access to a certain class spell list (ex. Druid for the nature stone), and they have to roll to determine what spell/level they cast.
I also like the Niffin idea. I think maybe I can run with: if you touch the stone with no protection at all, you just disintegrate (some amount of d10s of damage per turn). If you integrate it into a magical device Infinity Gauntlet style, you run the Niffin risk whenever you use it.
Im looking to add three near-all-powerful maguffins to my game. They should be basically game breaking if wielded properly, but they can kill you if you use them wrong/too much. They're meant to be endgame material. The final boss will have one/two, the party will have the third. Any ideas?
What kind of game are you running?
What level is end game?
Where is the party now? Are they close to getting them or is this beginning of a campaign thinking?
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Are you familiar with the tv show The Magicians? Attempting to exceed your magical potential with a powerful spell would essentially burn you from the inside and turn you into a Niffin, a being of pure magical energy.
For 5e, a game-breaking option would be a spellcasting focus that allows the player to ignore concentration for spells. Every round that they maintain concentration on 2 or more spells, have them roll a concentration check against DC 13 +2 per spell (or whatever is appropriate). On 3 failures, they turn into a Nothic. (Resets on a Long Rest)
Maybe a time bending one? Ex: Wielder can cast the time stop spell x number of times, slow 3x times, and haste 3x times. Once per day, the wielder can force one creature to reroll an attack roll, saving throw, or ability that happened less then one round before.
Or a space bending one? Ex: Wielder can cast the gate spell x number of times, banishment 2x times, and dimension door 2x times. Once per day, the wielder can teleport another creature to any location that they can see. The target takes y force damage if its teleported into an object.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Well, the entire point of a Maguffin is that the thing itself is irrelevant. It’s only value lies in the fact that everyone wants it.
In Pulp Fiction for example, all we ever new of the thing was that a golden glow would shine on the face of whoever opened that briefcase and they got a funny expression. That was enough to imply the items desirability supposed value.
In Star Wars it was the blueprints to the Deathstar, but the story’s main hero’s, as well as we the audience, never actually need to see it at all. They got it to point Z where they gave it to someone else who then told them the tiny little piece of information they actually need to go be the heroes so we could enjoy watching it.
So, whatever you decide them to be never need do anything at all in the heroes’ hands, and they don’t actually even need to really know what it is or why it works. They just need to know two things:
They may (or may not) learn other stuff about the object too, but those things don’t even need to really be true.
In truth, anything powerful enough to qualify as a Maguffin is probably best out of the party’s possession, rather than in their possession with the only exception being the convenience of having that ready to use as the reason why random evildoers will be popping in in the party to steal the thing whenever you need that excuse. But you don’t need them to be in possession of the thing for that to be your excuse, simply having some useful piece of information about the item can be enough. Like maybe they have the most recent data on the item’s last known location; knowledge of the individual or location meant to be the object’s final intended destination; or the object’s command word, or maybe even just a piece of it.
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It's about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way through. They spent the first half of the campaign returning one of the gems to an elf king, not knowing what it was and being told to never touch it. The BBEG is about to get ahold of the second one and they will likely need to find the third in order to stand a chance against him. They will probably be around 10-12th level by the time they hit endgame.
I like the idea of not needing concentration, was also considering making spells cast with the gem force an auto-fail on saving throws.
As for what spells to give each gem, I was considering that each one will give the wielder access to a certain class spell list (ex. Druid for the nature stone), and they have to roll to determine what spell/level they cast.
I also like the Niffin idea. I think maybe I can run with: if you touch the stone with no protection at all, you just disintegrate (some amount of d10s of damage per turn). If you integrate it into a magical device Infinity Gauntlet style, you run the Niffin risk whenever you use it.